Islamic jihad against Christians

With their typical mutual respect, devout Muslims have been celebrating Christmas the world over. Jihad bombers murdered 34 people as Christians were coming out of church on Christmas morning in Baghdad, and Muslims threatened and protested against Christmas celebrations all over the world. Two days after Christmas, Lebanon’s former ambassador to the U.S. and at least four other people were murdered in a car bombing in Beirut. That same day, jihadists killed 10 people with a bomb in a restaurant in Mogadishu and three soldiers with a homicide car bombing in Kabul.

Of course, we all know that it’s Islamophobia that’s the real problem – although I suspect that the victims might not agree. And meanwhile, on Christmas Muslims showed the respect and tolerance they demand from everyone else at a time when Christians are being mercilessly persecuted and slaughtered under Muslim rule across the world.

In Denmark, Muslims screaming “Allahu akbar” held a demonstration on Christmas Eve. They were not the only ones: It is not unusual for Muslims to denounce Christmas. In November 2011, the Lebanese Muslim cleric Abu Musaab Wajdi Akkari said:

You cannot say: “Merry Christmas.” Not even if an alien came and said it to you – you cannot even say it to him, and say: “He’s just an alien. I’m never going to see him again. He’s not going to tell anyone.” No “Merry Christmas” – not from a Muslim and not from a non-Muslim. It’s not part of our religion – period! It is the concept that God was born on the 25th of December. That’s as polytheistic and heretic as you can get. When you say: “Merry Christmas,” you are saying: “Congratulations on your false religion,’ ‘Congratulations on your false understanding of life.” You are congratulating them on the most evil of polytheism and heresy.

In Turkey, according to ANI, “a Turkish Muslim youth group has condemned Santa Claus for bringing booze, drugs and immorality to the society. The Anatolia Youth Association held a demonstration in Istanbul urging residents to turn against Santa for contributing to moral decay, degeneration of their culture and leading to identity crises in their society, CNN reports. The group used an inflatable plastic Santa as a prop, littering the ground below it with beer cans, a syringe and a cross to illustrate the dangers of inviting Santa into Turkish homes, the report added.” Posters appeared in Macedonia and Turkey of Muslims hitting Santa Claus.

Even Muslims in America denounced Christmas. The Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI, reported that “the Mufti of Washington, D.C., Sheikh Muhammad Al-Hanooti, prohibited Muslim children from having their photos taken with Santa Claus, as this is a ‘sin’ and ‘an abomination’ that contravenes the tenets of Islam. The site emphasized that the Mufti’s position does not represent the view of most Muslims living in the U.S., and that the imam of a mosque in Maryland has even urged Muslims to celebrate Christmas along with the Christians as a means of promoting their integration in American society.”

This kind of thing happens every year. MEMRI reported last year that “on New Year’s Eve, members of the youth wing of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan attacked revelers in the city of Lahore and smashed cars to protest against New Year’s celebrations, while columnists and Islamic clerics in Pakistan and India declared the occasion as un-Islamic, urging youth to refrain from emulating the West on occasions like New Year’s and Christmas.”